🧱🚗 Old Brick Road – Driving a Forgotten Piece of Florida’s Original Dixie Highway

Simba and I visited the Old Brick Road near Bunnell, Florida — one of the longest surviving sections of the original Dixie Highway and an incredible piece of early Florida transportation history.

Hidden among the pine forests, wetlands, and rural countryside of Flagler County is a narrow roadway that looks almost frozen in time. Instead of asphalt, miles of the road remain covered with century-old vitrified bricks laid during the earliest days of automobile travel.

Once part of an important route connecting communities across Northeast Florida, the Old Brick Road offers a rare opportunity to experience what driving through the state was like more than 100 years ago.

🚘 Florida Enters the Automobile Age

During the early 1900s, automobiles were rapidly transforming transportation across the United States.

Florida, however, still had relatively few dependable hard-surface roads. Many routes were little more than dirt or sand tracks that could become extremely difficult to travel after heavy rain.

Communities throughout the state began pushing for improved roads that could accommodate the growing number of automobiles and connect isolated towns with larger transportation networks.

The road near Bunnell became part of that transformation.

🛣️ Building a Better Road Through Florida

Construction of the brick highway began after St. Johns County voters approved a major road bond in 1914.

Among the project's strongest supporters was local businessman and developer Isaac I. Moody Jr., one of the founders of Bunnell.

Moody understood that dependable transportation would be essential to the community's future. A reliable hard-surface road could connect Bunnell with neighboring towns while encouraging commerce, development, and tourism throughout the region.

The route eventually connected communities including:

- Bunnell
- Espanola
- Hastings
- St. Augustine
- Daytona Beach

For travelers accustomed to primitive dirt roads, the new brick highway represented a major improvement.

🧱 A Highway Built from Vitrified Brick

Rather than asphalt, the roadway was constructed using durable vitrified bricks.

These bricks were manufactured to withstand heavy loads, constant traffic, and exposure to Florida's challenging weather.

More than a century later, many of those original bricks remain in place.

Some still carry the manufacturer's marking:

GRAVES B'HAM ALA

The stamp identifies the Birmingham, Alabama company responsible for producing the paving bricks used along portions of the route.

Seeing those markings still visible after more than 100 years makes the road feel like an enormous outdoor transportation museum.

📏 A Highway Only Nine Feet Wide

Perhaps the most surprising feature of the Old Brick Road is its width.

Much of the original roadway measured only about nine feet across—barely wide enough for a single automobile.

Drivers meeting another vehicle traveling in the opposite direction couldn't simply remain in their lanes like they would today.

Instead, one vehicle often had to move partially onto the shoulder so the other could squeeze past.

By modern highway standards, it seems incredibly narrow. During the early automobile era, however, it was considered a significant transportation improvement.

🛣️ Becoming Part of the Dixie Highway

The brick roadway eventually became part of the famous Dixie Highway system.

Developed during the early twentieth century, the Dixie Highway was an enormous network of interconnected roads designed to link the Midwest with the American South and Florida.

The system helped usher in a new era of automobile tourism as travelers began driving south in search of:

- Warm Florida winters
- Beaches and coastal destinations
- New communities
- Roadside attractions
- Outdoor adventures

Routes like the Old Brick Road became gateways for some of Florida's earliest automobile tourists.

🚐 Early RV Travelers and “Tin Can Alley”

Long before today's motorhomes and travel trailers filled Florida campgrounds, adventurous motorists were already finding ways to travel and camp along the state's primitive highways.

The route became associated with the nickname "Tin Can Alley," reflecting the growing stream of travelers heading south with simple metal camping trailers and makeshift automobile camping equipment.

These early road travelers were predecessors to the RV culture that remains such an important part of Florida tourism today.

Driving this historic route with Simba made that connection especially interesting. More than a century ago, travelers were following the same general path while searching for their own Florida adventures.

🛤️ A New Highway Leaves the Brick Road Behind

The Old Brick Road's importance did not last forever.

Automobiles became larger, faster, and more numerous during the 1920s, making narrow brick roads increasingly outdated.

In 1927, a newer highway between St. Augustine and Bunnell opened along a route that eventually became part of U.S. 1.

Traffic shifted toward the wider and more modern roadway, and the old brick route gradually faded from importance.

🧱 What Happened to Florida’s Brick Highways?

Most of Florida's early brick roads eventually disappeared.

Some were:

- Covered with asphalt
- Torn apart
- Abandoned
- Destroyed during later construction
- Salvaged for building materials

Bricks removed from old roads were often reused in houses, fireplaces, patios, walkways, and public buildings throughout Flagler County.

That makes the surviving section near Espanola particularly remarkable.

🌲 Ten Miles Through Rural Florida

Today, approximately 10 miles of the historic Old Brick Road survive through rural Flagler County.

Long stretches still contain the original brick pavement beneath passing vehicles.

The road winds through a landscape of:

- Pine forests
- Wetlands
- Rural countryside
- Isolated stretches of undeveloped land
- Quiet remnants of Old Florida

Without modern development surrounding much of the route, it's surprisingly easy to imagine early motorists bouncing along the same narrow road more than a century ago.

⏳ More Than 100 Years of Wear

A century of traffic, weather, vegetation, and changing land use has understandably taken its toll.

Some areas remain remarkably intact, while others show:

- Uneven pavement
- Missing bricks
- Damaged sections
- Vegetation encroachment
- Later repairs and alterations

Those imperfections are part of what makes the road fascinating.

This isn't a reconstructed historical display. It's an actual transportation route that has survived generations of use.

🏛️ A Nationally Recognized Historic Road

The historical importance of the Old Brick Road was formally recognized in 2005 when it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Its preservation provides a rare surviving example of the infrastructure that helped transform Florida during the earliest decades of automobile travel.

The bricks beneath your feet—or tires—tell the story of a period when simply building a dependable road between communities could dramatically change the future of an entire region.

🐕 Exploring the Old Brick Road with Simba

Exploring this forgotten highway with Simba was especially interesting because the road itself is the attraction.

There isn't a towering monument or elaborate visitor center waiting at the destination.

Instead, the history stretches for miles beneath you.

Every weathered brick, narrow section, and isolated stretch of forest offers another glimpse into an era when traveling across Florida by automobile was still an adventure.

🎥 Watch the Video

Join Simba and me as we explore the Old Brick Road near Bunnell and travel along one of the longest surviving sections of Florida's original Dixie Highway.

👀 In This Video You'll See

- Original century-old brick pavement from the Dixie Highway
- The extremely narrow single-lane sections of the historic roadway
- Weathered bricks still carrying manufacturer markings
- Rural forests and wetlands surrounding the old route
- Sections damaged or altered after more than 100 years of use
- Our exploration of this forgotten Florida highway with Simba

⭐ Why the Old Brick Road Is Worth Exploring

The Old Brick Road near Bunnell is a remarkable survivor from the earliest days of Florida automobile travel. Its century-old pavement, incredibly narrow design, Dixie Highway history, and isolated rural surroundings make it unlike almost any modern road in the state.

More importantly, this isn't simply a place where history happened—the road itself is the history.

Whether you enjoy historic roads, abandoned highways, Florida history, old transportation routes, roadside attractions, or unusual hidden places, the Old Brick Road near Bunnell offers a fascinating glimpse into what road travel looked like more than a century ago.

👍 If you enjoy discovering forgotten roads, historic landmarks, and unusual places with Simba, please LIKE, COMMENT, and SUBSCRIBE for more road-trip adventures.